This week I learned the value of hard work. That's because we didn't work very hard and nothing happened. Sad.
This week we had lunch with Veronica. She's so awesome. Veronica is my investigator from Mission Veijo. She will not stop finding out my phone number and calling me to take me to lunch. So I gave in. She's so cool. She is like a ball of energy and everyone is super drawn to her. She's also this super tall thin "Latina" she says all the time. "I'm 100% Latina! Mexican!" I love her! She's been going to church and ARP meetings so that's awesome. I hope she will keep progressing.
We met a lady that was baptized the same month as me. She's old. She was baptized after seeing the influence of her daughter, who was baptized in highschool, for 36 years. Now she's super solid. She's home bound and so she's reading the Book of Mormon and keeping up with the gospel doctrine lesson. She asked us to bring her tithing slips because she's concerned about her tithing.
I was interviewed by my bishop. Kinda different but pretty cool. Basically he asked me some questions and then he let me ask a bunch of questions. He said my questions were very thoughtful and deep. He said most missionaries ask him questions like "what's you favorite color" and things. So I think that's pretty ridiculous.
D&C 84 :19 And this greater priesthood administereth the gospel and holdeth the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God.
Something I've picked up on is that sometimes people who hold keys (a bishop, a 70, a mission president, etc.) will give you an opportunity to ask them questions. It is an absolute waste of time and opportunity to either pass up the opportunity or to ask them questions that aren't of eternal value. You can learn so much from someone who has priesthood keys. My invitation is that if the Bishop or anyone else that has keys every says to you "So.. do you have any questions?" be prepared to grab hold of that opportunity.
Another thing that's stood out to me this week is this:
Moses 7 : 28 And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of the people, and he wept; and Enoch bore record of it, saying: How is it that the heavens weep, and shed forth their tears as the rain upon the mountains?
29 And Enoch said unto the Lord: How is it that thou canst weep, seeing thou art holy, and from all eternity to all eternity?
30 And were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea, millions of earths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy creations; and thy curtains are stretched out still; and yet thou art there, and thy bosom is there; and also thou art just; thou art merciful and kind forever;
31 And thou hast taken Zion to thine own bosom, from all thy creations, from all eternity to all eternity; and naught but peace, justice, and truth is the habitation of thy throne; and mercy shall go before thy face and have no end; how is it thou canst weep?
32 The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency;
33 And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood;
34 And the fire of mine indignation is kindled against them; and in my hot displeasure will I send in the floods upon them, for my fierce anger is kindled against them.
35 Behold, I am God; Man of Holiness is my name; Man of Counsel is my name; and Endless and Eternal is my name, also.
36 Wherefore, I can stretch forth mine hands and hold all the creations which I have made; and mine eye can pierce them also, and among all the workmanship of mine hands there has not been so great wickedness as among thy brethren.
37 But behold, their sins shall be upon the heads of their fathers; Satan shall be their father, and misery shall be their doom; and the whole heavens shall weep over them, even all the workmanship of mine hands; wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer?
Enoch is having a conversation with Heavenly Father and he sees him weep. Enoch is surprised because Heavenly Father is perfect and eternal and powerful, yet he can weep. Heavenly Father explains that he weeps because we suffer when we misuse our agency. That made me so sad. I'm always so impressed at how much our Heavenly Father loves us and desires what's best. Also Severson asked me to read Genesis 3 and since I've never before accepted a reading assignment from one of my missionaries.... I decided to read it. I was impressed at how when Heavenly Father is driving Adam and Eve out of the garden he warns them of the challenges they will face outside of the garden. He tells them that they will have to work hard and there will be thorns and thistles etc. He really wants us to be prepared for all of the challenges we will face so he gives us commandments and stewards to watch over us and if we keep the commandments and listen to the stewards we will be able to face everything.
Here's some quotes:
That's a little melodramatic but not much. We did have some good stuff happen like we got two fairly solid potentials. We ended up getting a referral from someone who used to be in the mission presidency. Apparently she's catholic but she's so done being catholic and wants to be baptized.
The other person is a lady who is going through a divorce and having a hard time. She almost came to church but didn't make it. We're hoping to meet with both of these people this week.
We had ward council for the first time since the wards changed. It was good. Apparently the ward is "so huge" and "ridiculously large" I get it because both wards were apparently like barely above a branch before they were combined and now they're like the size of a kinda large ward. However I wasn't here when they were small so all I know is that it looks like a regular size ward to me.
Our ward mission leader, Brother Storm, is really energetic and super business oriented. He's learning preach my gospel and he's super excited about it. He's super excited about everything. Also he served in every kind of leadership on his mission so he's excited about still being a missionary leader. It's going to be exciting. He was telling us he served in a mission that had 1 half baptism per missionary per year so he knows what it's like to serve in a low baptizing mission. However, our mission is not even that low baptizing. I mean I guess it is compared to places that are more humble and more religious, but it's pretty good. I can't complain.
This week we had lunch with Veronica. She's so awesome. Veronica is my investigator from Mission Veijo. She will not stop finding out my phone number and calling me to take me to lunch. So I gave in. She's so cool. She is like a ball of energy and everyone is super drawn to her. She's also this super tall thin "Latina" she says all the time. "I'm 100% Latina! Mexican!" I love her! She's been going to church and ARP meetings so that's awesome. I hope she will keep progressing.
We met a lady that was baptized the same month as me. She's old. She was baptized after seeing the influence of her daughter, who was baptized in highschool, for 36 years. Now she's super solid. She's home bound and so she's reading the Book of Mormon and keeping up with the gospel doctrine lesson. She asked us to bring her tithing slips because she's concerned about her tithing.
I was interviewed by my bishop. Kinda different but pretty cool. Basically he asked me some questions and then he let me ask a bunch of questions. He said my questions were very thoughtful and deep. He said most missionaries ask him questions like "what's you favorite color" and things. So I think that's pretty ridiculous.
D&C 84 :19 And this greater priesthood administereth the gospel and holdeth the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God.
Something I've picked up on is that sometimes people who hold keys (a bishop, a 70, a mission president, etc.) will give you an opportunity to ask them questions. It is an absolute waste of time and opportunity to either pass up the opportunity or to ask them questions that aren't of eternal value. You can learn so much from someone who has priesthood keys. My invitation is that if the Bishop or anyone else that has keys every says to you "So.. do you have any questions?" be prepared to grab hold of that opportunity.
Another thing that's stood out to me this week is this:
Moses 7 : 28 And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of the people, and he wept; and Enoch bore record of it, saying: How is it that the heavens weep, and shed forth their tears as the rain upon the mountains?
29 And Enoch said unto the Lord: How is it that thou canst weep, seeing thou art holy, and from all eternity to all eternity?
30 And were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea, millions of earths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy creations; and thy curtains are stretched out still; and yet thou art there, and thy bosom is there; and also thou art just; thou art merciful and kind forever;
31 And thou hast taken Zion to thine own bosom, from all thy creations, from all eternity to all eternity; and naught but peace, justice, and truth is the habitation of thy throne; and mercy shall go before thy face and have no end; how is it thou canst weep?
32 The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency;
33 And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood;
34 And the fire of mine indignation is kindled against them; and in my hot displeasure will I send in the floods upon them, for my fierce anger is kindled against them.
35 Behold, I am God; Man of Holiness is my name; Man of Counsel is my name; and Endless and Eternal is my name, also.
36 Wherefore, I can stretch forth mine hands and hold all the creations which I have made; and mine eye can pierce them also, and among all the workmanship of mine hands there has not been so great wickedness as among thy brethren.
37 But behold, their sins shall be upon the heads of their fathers; Satan shall be their father, and misery shall be their doom; and the whole heavens shall weep over them, even all the workmanship of mine hands; wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer?
Enoch is having a conversation with Heavenly Father and he sees him weep. Enoch is surprised because Heavenly Father is perfect and eternal and powerful, yet he can weep. Heavenly Father explains that he weeps because we suffer when we misuse our agency. That made me so sad. I'm always so impressed at how much our Heavenly Father loves us and desires what's best. Also Severson asked me to read Genesis 3 and since I've never before accepted a reading assignment from one of my missionaries.... I decided to read it. I was impressed at how when Heavenly Father is driving Adam and Eve out of the garden he warns them of the challenges they will face outside of the garden. He tells them that they will have to work hard and there will be thorns and thistles etc. He really wants us to be prepared for all of the challenges we will face so he gives us commandments and stewards to watch over us and if we keep the commandments and listen to the stewards we will be able to face everything.
Here's some quotes:
"Her old Bishop's name is Gwilliams. It's spelled like Williams, but with a G at the front." -Sister Gage
"My name is also spelled like Williams but that's because it is." -Elder Williams
"I don't like when bad things happen to good people, but, despite what people in the stake might say, I'm not perfect. You see I'm not that offended when bad things happen to bad people." -Brother Cardal
"And Elder Dayton would be -" -me
"A loud cat!" -Sister Gage
" How about this: My husband was a technical mountain climber before it was cool." -Sister Clark
"We have an investigator named Abu. I'm not monkeying around that's his actual name. Teaching him has been an adventure. You could say it's been a real.... magic carpet ride." -Elder Chain
"Speaking of Spiritual Crocodiles, you can take the largest alligator and put it in a vest and well, then it's an investigator." - President Clark
"I asked her if she's traveled to any states and she said Ohio so now she's in Japanese work." -Sister Clark
"My favorite missionary is from Orem" -me
"Sister Atchley uhhh! I'm from PROVO!" -Elder Kieth
"That's a patient finger." -Elder Fife
"You're pretty basic being from Texas and being named Austin." -me
"Oh yeah, I'm going to name my kids Dallas Fife, Houston Fife, and my girl Abilene Fife." -Elder Fife
"That'll do donkey That'll do." -Text from Elders
"NOT THAT WE'RE CALLING Y'ALL DONKEYS!" - Text 5 seconds later
"Ok now what's wrong with YOU miss grumpy pants." -Elder Gunn
"I was born in Utah and moved to Wyoming, but I say that's were I'm from because I don't want people thinking I'm your typical Utard." -Elder Williams
"I'm the shortest person in my family." -me
"I hope so!" -Elder Gunn
"He was taller when I married him" -Sister Medling
"You get shorter when you get married." -Brother Medling
"oh no!" -me
"We were having an argument about which school is the real U-dubb" -Elder Williams
"We typed it into google U - W and' -Elder Gunn
"The great and spacious building came up!" -Elder Williams
"UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON!" -Elder Gunn
"I was searching online for missionary blogs" -Sister Medling
"I think the term you're looking for is trolling the internet." -Brother Medling
"It'll be 3 years in April." -Sister Hammerschlag
"me too!" -me
"Oh really! You work quickly!" -Sister Hammerschlag
"Man I don't understand how people forget English when they learn a language! You don't just go and forget words! That's ridiculous!" -Bishop's son
"I was at EFY and my.... uhh.... councilor was like etc. etc." -Bishop's son
"Yeah my favorite is how you just got done bagging on people who forget English words cause they learn a foreign language and then you forgot the word councilor." -me
"I hope you never learn a language." -Sister Flora
Here's a neat reading assignment:
There Are Many Gifts
Marvin J. Ashton
"I hope you never learn a language." -Sister Flora
Here's a neat reading assignment:
There Are Many Gifts
Marvin J. Ashton
It's good. Pray about and ask for help to see the uncommon gifts that you have.
"I always match with my companions" -Sister Ward
"We're matching in that we're both wearing my clothes." -me
"Last time I got my hair cut I got it cut by someone who also cuts celebrity hair." -Elder Kieth
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